Have a Glorious TDOV 2021!
My dear glittering sparklesouls,
This week, the Trans Day of Visibility approaches. Like the sighting of a leprechaun, this is the one and only day of the year when you can actually SEE your minister. Tomorrow, I fade into the shadows once again… No, I’m kidding. It is, in fact, a day of the year when I remember how amazing we all are. How cool is it that all of you exist here? I think what a gift it is that all of you, with all your magical, beautiful, glittering uniqueness of all kinds, have chosen to be here in this community together.
When this congregation was founded, it was radical to be against segregation. Yet this congregation’s members took leadership to help desegregate the Mack Pack Pool. Then, when it was still radical to include gay and lesbian people, you welcomed people in their full selves. You became a Welcoming Congregation and the first congregation in this area to perform a gay marriage. And now, when it is still controversial to include trans people, you’ve chosen a minister with they/them pronouns. You’ve decided to stay on this learning curve that draws a wider circle every year. Now, this congregation is a place where more and more of our community can bring all that which makes us who we are.
This is a week to take pride in yourselves and in one another. You are the congregation where people tell trans youth and their parents to go if they need support. We are a people who make it clear that there is Love bigger than any intolerance. People in this congregation may not be great yet with gender neutral pronouns, but the important part is that no one here is claiming it’s not worth trying or that people don’t deserve to have their gender respected. This has not been a process without hesitation or work. Yet even in these past two years, even with the complication of a pandemic, we’ve continued to grow and to become more capable the best we’re able.
Watch Rev. Elizabeth on the VUU!
“We are always here and always glorious.”
Rev. Elizabeth
As we move into our April theme of “Becoming,” may we always make space for growth. May we honor how we are always in the midst of making our way. Let us we acknowledge and celebrate the good we are doing and the ways that this congregation inspires the wider community. And may we learn from the ways that we have been imperfect and hurtful in the past and honor what has been done to try and make amends. Above all, let us always know that there is deep complexity in all of who we are as a congregation and as individuals. Each of us is like a gem with facets and inclusions that glitter and glow from deep within. We change with the turning of the seasons and the years. We are none of us perfect, yet every one precious.
Dear gems, with all your facets of shining beauty, I am eager to be with you again in person. Additionally, I’m thankful for your flexibility in allowing us to move in stages. We as a congregation are acting to reopen in safe ways, and honoring a wide variety of needs and desires.
